On the run in yesterday's stage at Adriatica Ionica Race (opening, starting from Ferrara with Scaroni), Alessandro Monaco is struggling to put together a season that will allow him to relaunch himselfA talented rider, the Apulian is one of those sacrificed boys laid down by the Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè on the altar of haste. Having turned professional in the year of Covid with an excellent CV, he found himself on foot at the end of 2021. without having been able to play it. He left room for others who maybe will make it big or maybe will end up like him and he settled down at giotti victoria by Stefano Giuliani.
Yesterday, after the stage, he chatted at length with Giovanni Carboni, with whom he spent the two years at Reverberi's court, and before talking about himself, he dedicated a thought to the guys at Gazprom.
«Unfortunately, I know what it means to be on foot – he said – or rather… Not so much being on foot as struggling through difficultiesI appreciate these guys and I can truly say that I understand them. Some like Scaroni and Carboni are brothers, friends. I also try to be close to them, but Unfortunately this is not an easy worldBut we are really tough and, whatever happens, surely one day we will be real men».
Let's talk about you, your escape was a great sign of life...
I hope to do more of this to prove that I exist and where I could be. Unfortunately, there's always something missing in the endings.Yesterday I started early, certainly to make the stage, but also because I didn't have the pace to keep up with the leaders. So I thought that maybe by starting early I could stay close. Unfortunately they caught me at the foot of the last climb and I struggled to keep up the pace.If they had caught me a couple of kilometers later, maybe I would have succeeded, but racing is like that. I'm here and I'm trying to show that I want to do it, even if It's difficult to stand out among people who are leaving the Giro.
It was supposed to be the season of relaunch, how is it going?
I have ups and downs and Unfortunately, I suffer from a small health problem that I recently discovered and that I need to resolve., because otherwise it is difficult to move forward.
What is this?
It's a problem that limits me a lot, a nuisance and sometimes a pain in one legI always try to find the determination and keep going, but it's not easy. After a good start to the season, I began to feel that something wasn't right, and indeed it was as I thought and as we thought. It's a problem that unfortunately affects more than a few cyclists and if you don't have surgery, it limits your performance a lot..
Do you feel it while running?
Until he catches me, I try to do my best. There are days when it goes well and others when I suffer.Basically, I can't really rev much. But if I'm running at my pace, everything seems normalWhen the first ones catch me, I can't pick up the pace and I struggle to stay behind. Unfortunately, I don't decide..
How is the season going after the Adriatica Ionica?
Now the Italian championship is at home, in Puglia. It's certainly not a path that suits me very well, but I want to be there for my country. And then there will definitely be the Sibiu Tour. The team is Romanian, so we really care about it. Then I think I'll do a period of detachment, also to delve into this problem further.
